Case Number 24119: Small Claims Court

BEST LAID PLANS (2012) (BLU-RAY)

The Charge

Steinbeck goes British crime thriller...kind of.

The Case

Danny (Stephen Graham, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) is
a low level hood eking out a meager existence in the gritty, grimy England of
the new millennium. In Dutch with a defiant gangster named Curtis (David O'Hara,
Cowboys and Aliens), our rogue manages to get out of trouble with the
help of his massive, mentally challenged ward, Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje,
The Mummy Returns). Seeing how successful size is in such situations, our
baddie offers Danny a deal. Get his good-natured homunculus to fight in the
illegal underground boxing matches that apparently pepper the UK landscape, or
pay the ultimate price. Thus our angling anti-hero struggles to manipulate
Joseph into scrapping. In the meantime, Danny takes up with a woman (Emma
Stansfield) whose own life mirrors his many struggles and personal demons, while
his buddy woos a prostitute (Maxine Peake, Red Riding: In the Year of Our
Lord 1980). In the end, there is tragedy.

While it cites John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men as a possible
inspiration, Best Laid Plans is really nothing more than another slice of
Guy Ritchie revisionism. Ever since the ex-Mr. Madonna delivered his delirious
crime epics (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch,
RocknRolla) to a genre-weary public, his post-Mona Lisa look at
English evil has dictated the way in which such dramas are drawn. Instead of
sticking to his own understated sense of style, director David O'Hara (a British
TV staple) samples elements from all filmed feloniousness. We get the curt
threats, the uneasy wheeling and/or dealing, the defying of death and its
delayed inevitability, as well as a smattering of characters who can't hold
their own without a point of cinematic reference to hang from. Add in the
requisite dreariness that's long since replaced the rainy, foggy face of London
town, and it's veiled Vinnie Jones and pseudo Jason Statham to the rescue.

All kidding aside, Best Laid Plans does have its moments. Both main
actors are excellent, though it takes a bit to buy the hulking Akinnuoye-Agbaje
as addled. He's just too much of a presence to be perceived as anything other
than powerful. This makes his latter work in the ring so much more affective. We
don't like seeing Joseph debased. We do love to watch him physically humiliate
others. O'Hara stages these standoffs with little drama. After all, our low
IQ-ed champion has to survive until the last act denouement, right? As for
Graham, he's always good. He trades on his diminutive size to bring a lot of
vulnerable ire to Danny. Sure, we've seen him like this before, but when someone
is so convincing as a con man criminal, why not let him soar. The rest of the
cast remain in the background, the necessity as narrative fuel supplying most of
their import, and the script by Chris Green does take its time developing the
core relationships. Still for what it has to offer and how it chooses to provide
it, Best Laid Plans is not awful. It's just way too familiar to seem
fresh.

Visually, the Blu-ray release from Well Go USA is excellent. The filmmaker
has chosen to mute most of the colors, but the blacks are very deep and there's
an almost defiant level of detail. In fact, the 2.35:1/1080p high definition
widescreen transfer may be the best thing about this release. It clearly
captures O'Hara's aesthetic intentions. On the sound side of things, the DTS-HD
Master Audio 5.1 mix is a bit of a mess. When there is ambient noise and musical
scoring, the presentation delivers. Dialogue, on the other hand, seems to have
been mastered at half the volume as everything else. This turns the viewing
experience into a game of micromanaging the volume control. As for added
content, there's a trailer. That's it, which is really too bad. A bit of context
might have helped the overall appreciation of the film.

With its eye on classicism and its feet firmly based in the flavor of the
month, Best Laid Plans is an incomplete experience. On the one hand,
there's enough here to mildly entertain you. On the other, there's also little
new or truly noteworthy.